Autonomous self-powered self-directed mobile machines (“mobile robots” herein), are expected to greatly increase in the coming decades in areas such as manufacturing, distribution, health care, commercial delivery, warehousing, security, scientific exploration, military, emergency response, and many other areas. The development of powerful low-cost computers, advanced imaging sensors, compact motors, fast networking (such as 5G and higher), vastly improved software, and efficient energy storage have enabled a wide range of autonomous mobile devices including drones, mobile carts, autonomous heavy equipment, airborne devices, underwater and surface marine robots, plus many others.
Coordination of mobile robots is a continuing challenge, especially when they are used in “swarms” or large numbers of intermingling devices. Typically each device is programmed to perform a task, such as moving items around a warehouse, while avoiding collisions with other robots and people. Mobile robots are not typically programmed to follow any specific route; instead, each robot proceeds in a different way. For optimal productivity and conflict avoidance, each robot should include means for communicating with other robots in proximity. For optimal effectiveness, many of these communications should be individually and specifically directed to a particular other robot, such as a wireless message requesting to a particular other robot that it “Please move north one meter so I can get by”. However, current autonomous devices such as mobile robots lack the ability to determine which other robot, among a plurality of other robots in proximity, is associated with which wireless message. Each robot may display markings or other identification, but such markings are often obscured by cargo or dust or other robots, for example. Coordination would be greatly improved if each robot could identify and localize each other robot in proximity.
What is needed is means for autonomous mobile robots to determine which particular robot among a plurality of proximate robots is associated with which identification code and which wireless message, so that they could exchange specifically-addressed messages, greatly improve their cooperation, avoid interference and other problems, and improve the effectiveness of the operation for which they are tasked.
This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summary and Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor be viewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.